On May 9th George W. Bush quietly signed a presidential directive, the National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive. This directive according to Jerome Corsi (co-author of the book critical of John Kerry's service in Vietnam, Unfit for Command) at World Net Daily
loosely defines "catastrophic emergency" as "any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government functions."
When the president determines a catastrophic emergency has occurred, the president can take over all government functions and direct all private sector activities to ensure we will emerge from the emergency with an "enduring constitutional government."
According to Corsi,
That job, as the document describes, is to make plans for "National Essential Functions" of all federal, state, local, territorial, and tribal governments, as well as private sector organizations to continue functioning under the president's directives in the event of a national emergency.
Uh, oh. Corsi goes on to state,
Translated into layman's terms, when the president determines a national emergency has occurred, the president can declare to the office of the presidency powers usually assumed by dictators to direct any and all government and business activities until the emergency is declared over.
I only heard of this story because I usually watch Washington Journal on C-Span every morning. On Friday, Corsi was a guest and discussed his article and his belief that this directive was counter to the intent of the constitution, and a threat to our constitutionally provided freedoms.
The two things that struck me most about this story were:
WND and Corsi are definitely not "MoveOn.org", radical, left-wing, liberal, Bush-bashing, Hollywood elite, media types. Corsi voted for GW twice, and as stated before, wrote the attack book on John Kerry, Unfit for Command.
The second thing is the total lack of coverage on this story by the MSM. The blogs and Corsi's interview are starting to generate a little coverage but I have yet to see anything on TV or the large newspapers.
One thing to keep in mind is that Corsi is gearing up for a presidential run as a libertatian candidate, so this just may be his way of getting his name out. Watch the C-Span interview to decide if you think Corsi is sincere in his concern. They also had a guest on from AEI to represent the Continuity of Government Commision so there is some balance.
You can decide for yourself, but I think Corsi makes a good point that if the President is going to have such sweeping powers, there should at least be debate about it in the media and in Congress. It would be sad for the first time for people to hear about this directive, to be after it has been used.
Peace out.